Vasyl Lomachenko Before His First Title Shot

This interview with two-time Olympic champion, The Ukrainian Vasyl Lomachenko, was taken on January 2014, during his training camp in the mountains of California, where his was preparing for his title fight for the WBO featherweight crown against The Mexican, Orlando Salido.

V.L. We are in the Californian mountains, about 8000 feet above the sea, and about 2 hours drive from LA. Here, for three weeks, I will prepare for my fight against Salido.

Q. How was your flight? Who were in airport expecting you, was there Bob Arum?

V.L. No, he wasn't there. He doesn't have all the time to come to see me. Last time it was kind of special, because I came to sign the contract. This time I came to do my job.

Q. Salido is quite a respectable person in the boxing world, but his fight is not on the top of the bill. Do you think he deserves this kind of attitude?

V.L. For this measure there are specially educated people, who take care of all this staff, I mean the show promoting. If they doesn't put our fight on top of the bill, probably, there is a reason. And from the objective point of view, Salido will fight against the underdog, which am I. I am not well-known on the pro-ring right now. I am not saying now about the boxing game in general, I mean the people who are coming to watch the Stars. For example, Salido can be taken as a star, and he is fighting against the little known fighter. Usually, the two real Stars are topping the bill.

Q. What are the dreams of Vasyl Lomachenko outside of boxing?

V.L. My dream is retired from the boxing as unbeaten fighter!

Q. Who do you see yourself after your boxing carrier ended?

V.L. I will spend a lot of time with my family and do what I like the most, my hobbies, as much as possible.

Q. What kind of literature you are reading in your spending time?

V.L. Honestly, I am not reading at all.

Q. What music do you listening during your training sessions?

V.L. Well, I am not like listening music all the time during my trainings. For example, here I don't have such a opportunity. Here we have two gyms; the weight gym, which always are busy and the boxing gym, where do we spar, how do you wonder to listen the music during your sparring session!? At home I am listening different old CD's, which were recorded by other guys in the gym.

Q. How could you described the level of your sparring-partners here, comparing them with the guys in Ukraine?

V.L. Here I was sparring only with two partners, so, its hard to say anything. In Ukraine we had a lot of sparring-partners and I used to spar with many different guys of the different weight divisions. Its hard to compare with only two sparring-partners.

Q. What, actually, you are doing here in mountains?

V.L. Here I am working on my physical qualities, I do a lot of run, developing my strength and stamina. When we will back from the mountains, I will concentrate on my speed and sparring.

Q. Can you, please, put TOP 5 of your fights?

V.L. Albert Selimov, 2008 in Beijing. The final bout of the same Olympics against The Frenchman, Khedafi Jelkhir. The quarterfinals of the European Championships'2008, against The Irishman, David Olivier Joyce. The finals of the WCH'2009, against The Russian, Sergey Vodopyanov. The fight on WSB against The Italian, Domenico Valentino and my last fight against The Mexican, Jose Ramirez.

Q. How is going your sessions with the psychotherapist? What you are talking about?

V.L. He has developed the special system for the astronauts before going to the space. We are developing the attentiveness, the ability to concentrate and the speed of thinking. We have the experience of working together. We prepared for the WCH'2011 and for the London Olympics. He is a high class expert and the very good as a person.

Q. Will we see you back home, in Ukraine, before the fight?

V.L. No. Here I will spend three weeks, until the February 2. Then everything comes in very short, only some three weeks and the fight...